The Parliament has, therefore, continued to practice the arbitrary, objectivity-lacking manner of handling the policy towards the Anti-corruption Directorate’s requests for lifting the immunity of MPs, despite the public commitments made by the leaders of the most important parties earlier this year, after the last Presidential elections.

At the same time, we express our deep concern about the avalanche of legislative proposals to amend the Criminal Procedure Code as well as the anti-corruption and integrity legislation.

If adopted, the proposed amendments would have serious consequences on the effectiveness of fighting corruption and crime in general.

We also express our concern over the resurgence of politically-motivated attacks aimed at the leading magistrates of the judiciary.

MPs and senior government officials continue to make statements on pending cases, including those pending on the High Court of the Cassation and Justice.

As it was consistently and adamantly emphasized by the EC’s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism reports and the numerous conclusions of the Judicial Inspection investigations, such statements and attacks are very likely to affect the independence of the Judiciary.

These recent developments blatantly contradict the commitments made by the Romanian authorities under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.